CD Feature - Nick Grey: "Regal Daylight"

We never really doubted that Classical Music and Pop could meet. However, with projects such as VSOP or Rondo Veneziano and Opera stars using brute force on fragile chart hits, the question was, if their meetings always had to look so damn ugly.

"Regal Daylight" marks a decided change and offers one of the most remarkably idiosyncratic approaches of the last few years. Take "Look like Moses", the first track to follow a short one-minute intro: Drums apparently made of cardboard, stuttering like Scatman John on his day off, melt with a shimering clarinet, breaking like rays of light through orange clouds, while classical harmonies fill the fresh air of an open-windowed appartment on a summer's day. Don't be afraid - this record is neither the sort of Hippie-stuff that only makes sense after a few spliffs, nor is it overly complicated. It just avoids taking straight curves and choses instead to surprise the listener every single second. The best about it is that it defies all categories - "The Zealot" or "November fadeline" can either be songs or Lieder, depending on how you look at them and the operatic voice of Vasile Moldoveanu is comfortably placed alongside crackling noises and whispering voices which seem to come directly from a David Lynch movie. The effect is a dream-like state in which everything somehow seems to be perfectly in place - even though you couldn't explain why.

"Regal" means "majestic", which is probably one of the few things this album isn't. Instead, it ideally delivers on Nick Greys aim to create music "that brings peace and haziness to the listeners." Classical and modern music seemed worlds apart. With the arrival of "Regal Daylight", their joint future now looks bright and beautiful.

by tocafi

Homepage: Nick Grey